


these are the hands of fate (you're my achilles heel)

by stott183



Category: Runaways (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Parents, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Chase is smitten, F/M, Friends Share A House, Molly meddles, dogs are involved, they're all adults, this is not a soulmate au but it is to Chase, with a girl he's never seen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-27
Updated: 2018-09-27
Packaged: 2019-07-18 06:59:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16113221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stott183/pseuds/stott183
Summary: Chase falls easily, Molly has 'supernatural' intuition, Gert is Not a recluse, Karolina Is a hippie, and Alex and Nico are just trying to be good friends. Ada and Costello fall in love through a fence.ORa 'Chase walks his dog past Gert's house everyday and falls in love before he sees her face' AU, feat. old movie references as Still Gert's Thing and fate as Chase Stein's new best friend. Dogs are great judges of character.





	these are the hands of fate (you're my achilles heel)

Chase does not know who lives in the purple house at the end of the street but he does know that it might be a fairy? Or a witch? They have a gorgeous garden with this ivy covered fence he is sure has to be enchanted, because they face the same direction as his house and his potted porch plant died 3 months ago. The house at the end of the street has almost no regular grass, just garden and wild grasses kept at a respectable height. It has a big wooden porch itself, with a green rocking chair and a concrete dinosaur that was hand-painted shiny greens and reds. There was a sign on the door that said “שלום”, which took Chase 3 weeks to figure out was a) Hebrew and b) the word welcome. There was a clunker in the driveway with 8,000 overlapping bumper stickers, most reading joke phrases, like the one that says “I Was An Honor Student. I Don’t Know What Happened” and a vanity license plate that read OLDLCE, which only took Chase 4 hours of Googling to figure out was an old movie reference. He had the movie waiting for him tonight, actually. But the best feature of the Fairy House was by far Costello (also an old movie reference, this person was honestly fascinating).

 

Costello was a Husky, and the most well-behaved Husky Chase had ever seen. And Ada (Ada Lovelace Stein Minoru Wilder, even though she is Chase’s dog, not like those ungrateful fucks take her to the vet even though they all lived with her), Chase’s lab, was in love with him. So was Chase, honestly, because he let Chase pet his head and gave Ada kisses and wagged his tail and barked at them every night. They were on their nightly walk right now, and Ada was pulling on her leash to get to Fairy House.

 

It was different tonight though, because a teenage girl with curly hair was out. This was the first hide or hair of an inhabitant Chase had seen. She was pulling Costello on a leash and trying to close front door and cram a very pink hat on her head. “Costello, you mutt, stop pulling! You’re wrapped around my arm, hold on!” The girl lets him go in a huff and Costello barrels toward where Chase is now frozen, barely containing Ada. She puts her front paws on the fence as Costello barks at her. She sniffs at Costello when he jumps up on the fence, and the commence their daily dog flirting. The girl turns around, takes one look at him, and leans into the open front window to yell.

 

“Hey, InvisiGert! Hot guy is here with his dog, if you want your daily gawking!”

 

A flash of hair and eyes appears by the curtain. “Hey, Molly! Shove everything up your ass! All of it! And never enter my home again!” There is a voice inside the house, female and clear as a bell. A pause, and Chase, now red in the face, hears it again. “Don’t go too far, it’s getting dark! Love you!” Newly-identified Molly turns to him with a grin that could take the hair off of Ada.

 

“Hi, sorry to call you Hot Guy, but you never take my telepathic suggestions to wear a nametag. I’m Molly, this is my sister’s house. Well, my sister and Karolina’s house, but it was Gert’s first. Anyway, you also, um, have a dog?”

 

“Yes, definitely both dog owners, this is my dog and solely mine. And my name is Chase. Stein. Chase Stein. I, ah, live down the street and, um, Ada is in love with your dog.” He gestures lamely to the dogs, now attempting to sniff each other’s butts through the fence. A real Romeo and Juliet, they are.

 

“Molly, Molly Hernandez, and a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Chase Stein. I am taking Costello on a walk, do you think we could just walk with you guys for a while? You know, since the dogs are so weird about each other?”

 

“Yeah, of course, never one to stand in the way of true love.” He rubs a hand over the back of his neck and maneuvers Ada so that Molly can slip through the gate.

 

“In that case, can I get the number of your goth friend? Karo is totally in love with her and too useless to come outside and say hello when she walks- oh, what’s her name?”

 

Chase chokes in surprise for the second time that night. “Her name’s Ada Lovelace, like the scientist who jump started the advent of the computer.”

 

“That’s really cool! And I see you breezing right past the cupid quest, I get it. I’ll have to do this all myself then. What a shame.” Chase thinks, privately, that he was totally right about the fairy thing. This girl is supernatural.

 

Over the course of their nearly 2 hour walk, Chase learns that Molly is a studying kinesthetics at UCLA, in hopes of becoming a physical therapist. Karolina is getting a Master’s in Adolescent Psych and teaching yoga part-time- ‘a real genuine hippie’, in Molly’s view, and Gert is a freelance journalist and novelist who also works with nonprofits and organizes marches and might literally be Superwoman (check two and three on the actual Fae Folk house). He tells Molly that he teaches Physics and does weight training at the high school three blocks away, Alex does something remotely for a startup in Silicon Valley (that Chase thinks is just a cover for ‘professional hacker’), and Nico runs a used book store/wiccan emporium she inherited from some great aunt. Chase also learns that Molly is sharp, witty, and all around an absolute riot. He gives her his phone number and tells her to call if she ever needs a walk buddy.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Gert watches Hot Neighbor walk away from her house and hears Molly close the door. Costello jumps on the couch and looks up expectantly, and she laughs as she pets him. “How did all of that go?”

 

“Can you believe your gay little sister got a guy’s number before you?” Molly is unbearably smug. “It went great. He’s amazing and you would love him. He’s like a little ingenue, he could be your Eliza Doolittle.” Gert rolls her eyes. “Gertrude. I’m serious. I told him half of the stuff you did this year and he looked like he was going to vibrate with excitement. He started asking me if you did stuff in high schools, what kind of resources you had for teen girls, like, the questions of your dreams.”

 

“Molly Hernandez, didn’t anyone ever teach you not to lie?” Gert really doesn't believe any of that happened because Chase is, how to put this lightly, a hot guy. Hot guys don’t generally like things Gert likes, or Gert, or Gert’s little sister Molly. Hot, dog-walking, strapping young men who were probably models tended to shy away from people like Gert, as she was very hard to show off, with a quiet job and no interest in red carpets. “Wait, why would he ask about my resources for teen girls?”

 

“He teaches at that high school down the road, and a couple of his students have asked him to supervise their activism club. I told you. Dream man.” Costello whines. Gert pets him absently.

 

“If it’s meant to happen I’ll meet him organically, not because I’m sitting in this window. If we are out at the same time, I promise to talk to him. But, Molls, normally perfect people turn out to be too good to be true.” Gert, despite this rousing speech, starts to dream that Chase shows up for pamphlets and stays for coffee and company. Or alcohol and company. Or dinner, or forever. She starts to build a dream around him. She kicks herself.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It is two weeks post first walk and days of intermittent texting with Molly later when he sees his second inhabitant of the Fae House. He is walking Ada in mid-afternoon on a half-day from school, a Tuesday. There is a hybrid parked next to the clunker this time, and a girl with long, blonde braids is elbows deep in the flowers along the walk. Costello is sleeping on the porch until they get about 3 feet from him, at which point he wakes up, knocks over the blonde, and nearly vaults the fence.

 

“Holy shit Cos, where’d your manners go all of a sudden- oh. Hi, hot Chase from down the street. How are you?” The tone borders on teasing, but she has bright eyes and a genuine smile when she says it. Molly was right when she said ‘genuine hippie’. Chase might go as far as ‘bonafide’. She takes off her gloves and extends a hand to shake.

 

“Hi, you must be Karolina? Nice to meet you. I’m doing just fine, are you okay? I just saw you mauled by a vicious attack animal.” Costello leans his head into Chase, who has started petting him, and snuffs.

 

“Oh, he’s funny! That’s outstanding, you have the face of someone boring!” Her face goes red. “I mean, I just, oh my god I am so sorry!”

 

Chase just laughs. “Trust me, I know what you meant. I had the world’s most boring friends in high school. I look just like all of them.” Karolina relaxes, and gives him a once over. “Hey, I never got to ask Molly, where’s Abbott?” Karolina giggles, and Chase reconsiders giving her Nico’s number.

 

“Abbott, keen observer, is our cat. He’s inside, keeping DEAR GERTRUDE COMPANY.” Karolina says this while raising her voice at the end and turning to the front window. Chase sees a flash of curtain and purple, darker than the lavender of the house. InvisiGert calls out.

 

“He’s a housecat for a reason you monsters! I am not buying a cat a leash! It’s inhumane!”

 

Karolina turns to Chase and says, “Abbott is 15 pounds. The doctor wanted us to take him on walks. It did not go well.”

 

“I agree with you!” Chase yells toward the window. “There are other ways that don’t involve animal cruelty!”

 

Dear Gertrude makes a noise that is probably supposed to be “see!” but is somehow just a verbal gesture. He laughs.

 

Karolina gives him an odd look, like she has just understood some very difficult problem. He feels found out in some way. “I should get going, but it was nice to meet you!” he says. The silence has gone on long enough that he thinks this is polite.

 

She cocks her head and smiles. “Nice to meet you too, Hot Chase. Catch you around.” She waves, and puts her gloves back on.

 

As a joke, he leans over the fence and yells toward the window, “Goodbye, Gert! Parting is such sweet sorrow!” A middle finger appears in the window and he laughs, walking away.

 

To say that Gert suddenly occupies his every waking thought would be a slight overestimation. He has 20 minutes where a girl almost passes out trying to do weighted lunges after school and he had to call the nurse at her house for help where re-evaluating everything Molly had told him was only happening in the back of his mind. Alex begins to call him ‘Lovely the Fool’ in an attempt at some sort of mean nickname but they both agree that it sounds kind of sweet and nonsensical, so it doesn’t last long. Nico tells him to ‘go knock on their fucking door or something, Jesus.’ This is rich statement coming from a girl who could be considered a professional internet stalker at this point. Chase has had Karolina’s Instagram pop up in his explore page from how often Nico searches it. He gets a pillow thrown in his face for mentioning this.

 

It only takes 5 days after meeting Karolina to finally see Gert. It is early on a Sunday, 5 am, and he is Ada-less, surprisingly. He is on his morning run, and Ada can’t quite keep up with him for 10 miles first thing in the morning. His music is up loud and the weather is just starting to turn truly hot, now in late May, so there is fog in the air. That is why he cannot be held responsible for what happens. That house is full of supernatural women and it is a supernatural day. So when Chase sees a girl, wrapped in a blanket despite the weather, with a shock of purple hair, seated in the rocking chair with her feet on the concrete dinosaur and a book in hand, he might. Stop dead in his tracks. And rub his eyes, and stand, staring at the girl and the cat in her lap because what the actual fuck. When Molly told him that she and Gert were adoptive sisters, and that Gert was Jewish, Chase had built an image in his head. Chase is not getting that image. Chase is getting maybe the prettiest woman he has ever seen, reading a book and laughing aloud at it. And he is standing, panting, in the street like a kid who saw a ghost.  
Gert looks up. Her gaze drops, she goes bright red, and then, she waves. She smiles at him with no eyes, like it hurts a little, and Chase throws up his hand back, blurting out “hi!” and then takes off at a dead sprint.

 

At home, he glances down at himself and remembers that he is, in fact, shirtless and drenched in sweat. No wonder she looked so uncomfortable, there was a half-naked stranger staring at her. He must have looked like such a creep! He goes upstairs and angry jerks off in the shower, suddenly fascinated by every shade of purple.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Gert is not reclusive. She is just an indoor person. She likes to be able to control the elements, and she works from home. Sometimes she’ll go write at coffee shops and she thinks that counts. Plus, she walks Costello almost every day and she puts Abbott in his specially designed cat wheel and does like, situps and pushups and shit while he’s in there for a half hour. She is not pallid and frail looking, Molly. She’s a goddamn indoor person.

 

She is writing at the front window when he first appears. It is late November, maybe January? Gert works day to day. Karolina says it was right before Christmas, and if Gert’s honest she just forgot about December. So. it is late December when Hot Chase Stein appears at her window. He looks like a jock apparition sent to tease her about being just as weak for muscles as she was in high school. He also stops right outside her house- in grey sweatpants and a shirt that is not tight but isn’t … not tight- to talk to Costello. At first she can’t see why, and then he pulls on something and Ada appears. She can hear him call the yellow lab that, and she watches him pet Costello and check his collar and laugh. Watches Hot Guy look at the house, bemused, and peer in the window to where she is sitting. She knows he can’t see her, but it feels like he’s staring at her soul. She smiles. (And then she maybe hangs out at the window every day at that exact time for months and writes poetry about fate and almost walks to the door once. And then maybe wakes up at 4 am and sits on the porch because the early morning air is soothing and sees Hot Chase half-naked and staring at her, flushed and sweaty and-)

 

So, she’s in love with a man who has never seen her and his dog is some kind of sign from God. That’s really super. Just really really awesome. Gert thinks her organs might be shutting down.

 

In response to this reasonable concern, Karolina asks, “What would that even feel like?”

 

Molly, doing literal anatomy homework, says “A little like you’re slowly becoming paralyzed and are unable to move from the inside out.” She looks at Gert, facedown on the floor next to Abbott. “You’re probably right, Gertie. I heard about a West Hollywood man who died from being pathetic just last week.” That was, warranted. This has been going on for several months. Chase has met both her ‘roommates’ read- moochers. He loves her dog and they have had a conversation.

 

“Gert, not to be the least useless lesbian in the room and usurp Molly’s time-honored usefulness, but Chase is literally already in love with you. I have never seen anyone look at a window like they wanted to propose marriage. Plus, we know he loves animals!”

 

“And we know if he comes over more he’ll bring the goth, who is a bisexual small business owner named Nico. Also Karolina’s dream girl. And cool Alex, the secret spy! You’re denying us love and government takedowns, Gertrude!” Molly is, a little shit. Gert should remove her from the premises. She can bike home in the storm that is forming.

 

“Holy shit Gert he’s out there! Gert he’s standing at the gate!” Gert props herself up to look out the window. The street is empty, and Karolina is asking to get murdered. Gert feels tired and vulnerable and strung out. The anger and shame brewing in her chest are just as dark as the storm outside. Something in Gert kind of snaps, and she stands and flings the door open, running into the yard.

 

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT FROM ME?” she screams at the sky, “ARE YOU SIDING WITH MOLLY OVER ME NEVER LEAVING THE HOUSE? THAT’S UNFAIR AND YOU KNOW IT, I GO TO COFFEE SHOPS! IS THIS SOME KIND OF SIGN? A SICK JOKE? WE CAN ALL SEE HOW HOT HE IS, YOU DOUCHE! IS THIS BECAUSE OF HOW I ACTED IN HIGH SCHOOL? I AM A GODDAMN ADULT! DO YOU WANT ME TO GET MY HEART BROKEN, OR WHAT? WHAT DO YOU WANT, GOD, YOU MOTHERFUCKER?” In the exact moment she calls God a motherfucker, two things happen. One- the clouds break, and the rain begins to fall, whipping wind all around her. Two- Chase Stein rounds the corner, dog in one hand and handwritten apology note in the other, and sees the following scene.

 

~~~~~~

 

Gert is standing in a silk nightgown and lacy, floor length robe (later to be discovered as Gert’s ‘dramatic moping outfit’), like some kind of weird fairy goddess. Her hair is pulled up in braids and pinned back. She has her arms outstretched and is screaming at the sky as it crackles. She is barefoot in the lawn. Behind her, on the porch, Molly and Karolina are frozen, mouths open, with the door thrown wide behind them. Costello is sitting next to Karolina, and Abbott is twining between Gert’s legs like a familiar.  
“Holy fuck, will you marry me?” is not what is supposed to come out of his mouth. He claps a hand over it and starts to stumble backward as a panting Alex and Nico round the corner.

 

“Chase Stein you fucking idiot, don’t you check the weather? There’s like, freak winds and flash flood warnings and shit, what are you doing?” Nico is livid, and then she takes one look at the tableau in front of her. “Oh. My. Gods. You came all the way out here for that girl, didn’t you? I told you to leave that shit til tomorrow, she probably needs to cool off-” lightning strikes weirdly close to them.

 

“Guys, get in here! You’re gonna get killed!” Molly is waving them in from the porch, Karolina is collecting a shell-shocked Gert, and Alex accepts for them before the other two can protest. And by accepts, he sprints toward the house with Ada, snatching her from Chase’s grasp. Nico and Chase look at each other, and run.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

They are drinking hot chocolate and weird tea in the best smelling room Chase has ever been in. There is furniture in here he thinks might be originals from the 1950s. He feels really bad about dripping on it, but ‘a house full of women doesn’t really have anything that will fit you two’, according to Molly, who then lit up in the face and ran away. Alex is standing next to him, also wet and slightly less pissed than Nico, but only because Abbott has taken a real shining to him, and he is crouched on the floor petting his stomach. Nico is wearing some bright pink nightgown thing that Chase knows he will never be able to mention again. She has given up yelling at him for giggling at Karolina, who is providing the drinks, and somehow, a small plate of cheese spread and jam for crackers. Gert was already upstairs by the time he got inside, presumably changing, but as the seconds tick by he starts to wonder if she’s barricaded herself up there.  
Molly reappears, shooing both men to the first floor powder room, and thrusting shirts and sweatpants into their hands. “I stand corrected, Gert and I both have mens fit stuff as sleepwear. No swapping outfits, and the dryer is just around the corner for your stuff.” She slams the door.

 

“That’s your new friend?” Alex looks amused, and Chase doesn’t want this to be the impression he is getting of Molly.

 

“Yeah, this is kind of a weird day, and-”

 

“No, Chase. I was gonna say she seemed great. I’m always a big fan of meddling. Also, bro? Can you take a breath for me? You look like you might pass out. It’s gonna be okay, man. No matter what happens, I’ll still call you Golden Boy.” Chase hugs Alex, tight and wet, and it feels for a second like they are little kids playing kickball in the rain again.  
“Thanks. Am I really never living down Golden Boy?”

 

“You won a state title at 15, you overachieving jockmonster. No you’re never living it down.” They change in relative silence, and Chase thinks he can tell who is wearing Gert’s pajamas when he sees the screen printed vintage movie poster stretched over his torso. He groans. Next to him, Alex smiles in some perfectly normal Under Armour shit.

 

“Showtime, my sweet bitch.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Gert has barricaded herself up here. She is never coming down, she doesn’t care if it floods and they get an evacuation notice, she’ll die like a ship captain in her bedroom. She is not going downstairs to see Chase, dripping wet and in her house, hours after literally scaring him away. Today is not that day, okay? There is a knock at her door.

 

“Gert, if you stay up here when we have guests you’re going to offend Abbott with your rudeness.” Molly is too persistent, sometimes.

 

“Molls, Abbott is not actually a magical protector of this house, but my humiliation is real.” Her door opens, and Molly is looking much more serious than normal.

 

“I am not letting you sabotage this for yourself. You will go downstairs, you will meet Hot Chase once and for all, and you will be oh so tragically straight about it for the rest of your life. I will tell this story at your wedding to uproarious laughter and applause, and I will not die before becoming an aunt. Come downstairs.” Molly’s eyes play the trick of light they do when she is angry and, for a second, flash bright yellow. Gert adjusts her hair and descends the staircase.

 

She is not ready for this. The clean clothes given to Chase are her most comfortable pyjamas, and seeing him lounge on her couch, seeing him smile as Molly plops down next to him, seeing him pet Abbott, settled in his lap, well. Gert should explain something. She has this, her parents always called it a vivid imagination. It fuels her anxiety, supplying worst case scenarios in petrifying details. But it also means that she has vivid positive daydreams too. It’s part of what drove her to writing, her ability to see stories. But it also meant she was a bit of an obsessive social media stalker, that she avoided having celebrity crushes for fear of being invasive. It meant she had pictured Chase Stein in her home in a variety of ways. And in not one of her fantasies did he actually fit this comfortably on her secondhand couch. He looks up at her, mid chuckle at his friend, Alex the Hacker, and his face drops. He looks kind of shell-shocked, like he’s seeing a ghost. He stands sort of abruptly, and Abbott is forced to jump quickly off his lap and stalks off, offended.

 

“Gert, it’s very nice to finally meet you. Well, properly meet you. I have this um, I wanted to apologize for my behavior this morning. I wrote you this note.” He thrusts a crumpled, wet piece of paper at her. Gert crosses her arms.  
“Read it.”

 

“What?” She can see the uncomfortable shift in his expression. But if he’s serious, he has to be able to look at her. She doesn’t really deal with cowardly behavior.

 

“Read it, please. Then I’ll accept the apology.”

 

“Okay. Damn, tough crowd. Ahem.” Chase hacks for a moment, and takes a deep breath. “Dear Gert, I want to apologize for ogling you on my run this morning. As I hope you are aware, you are very pretty and I got a little flustered. This is not, however, an excuse to invade a woman’s personal space with my eyes and sans shirt. Please know I had no intention to make you feel violated or unsafe. Also, Abbott is very cute and I think you are very clever with naming. Sincerely, Chase Stein aka Hot Chase aka Ada’s Owner.”

 

Gert is red in the face and might have clocked out of life completely. She can’t feel her toes. She is silent. She hears Karolina tell Nico that Chase might have broken her.  
“I would like to add the P.S. that I am also sorry for loudly proposing marriage when you were obviously going through something. When I propose to you next I will pick a much more appropriate situation.” The room sucks in a breath. Alex coos audibly, tearing up a little. Molly looks like she won the lottery. Gert can’t feel her fingers or her toes but she can feel her face, because it is hot enough to roast a marshmallow. Her whole body is screaming, like she wants to dance and jump up and down and sing and keep this man in her house forever.

 

“Um, Chase, can I talk to you upstairs? Or in the kitchen? Literally anywhere my little sister can’t see us?” Chase nods and lets himself be led up creaky stairs. Gert isn’t completely planned out on her next move, but she kind of just lets her body push Chase against the door to her bedroom and. And. She should kiss him. But he is just looking at her, sort of dreamy-eyed and she can’t. “What’s your middle name?”

 

“Gregory. It was my like, great-great-grandfather’s name.” He’s kind of freaking her out.

 

“Are you okay? You’re not like, on hallucinogens or anything?”

 

“God, no, I just. Do you ever think that something is just fated to happen? Like, the whole world exists for you in one moment?” He smiles. Gert is never recovering. She might explode. She thinks she gets why he proposed marriage, as it appears that on Chase, crazy is hot. “I think this is meant to be. Nico could read our cards. She does real tarot readings.”

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

Chase would be much more disappointed by the lack of immediate kissing if the hesitation felt like rejection. Right now, letting himself be held against a door by the woman he is somehow convinced will one day agree to live with him forever, it feels more like time travel. Like he’s seeing the future in Gert’s careful gaze. Years of this conversation, where Chase says something beautiful and Gert asks him if he’s high. The foundation of a strong relationship.

 

Plus, now he has a chance to beat her to the punch and lean down, kiss her gently. Okay, suddenly less gentle. Suddenly there is tongue and hands everywhere. Gert has these clever little hands, probably from all the typing. One is on his shoulder, the other is in his hair. Is pulling on his hair. Did he just make that noise? This is a lot. Fireworks exploding, sun scorching the earth, lightning flash hot. Chase is on fire. Chase hopes he is kissing her back because for all he knows he is just standing, mouth-open and useless, while the best moment of his life takes place around him. He squeezes whatever is under his hands, just to get a sense back of where he is, and Gert kind of yelps into his mouth because, yeah, okay, his left hand is full on her ass right now. Cool job, autopilot Chase. Gert smells like waking up warm in the winter, like something sharp softened around the edges by comfort. She tastes like cherry candy and tea. He saw a wrapper on her dresser, maybe she likes cherry candies best? Should he buy her cherry candies? He pulls away.

 

“Is cherry your favorite flavor? What kind do you like best, gummy or hard candy? Is there a place you go to get it?” Gert is laughing at him.

 

“Chase, I think we need to date before we get married. And maybe before we have sex a floor above the closest people in our lives.”

 

“Oh, I hate when you’re right already. You’re gonna be so smart forever, dammit.” He kisses her again, chaste and smiling. “Let’s go downstairs.”

 

Downstairs, a fight has broken out over which dog can do better tricks, and Molly and Nico are trying to get the sleepy, mildly frightened dogs to ‘roll over! C’mon, we know you can!’ while Karolina keeps score and Alex soothes Abbott’s ego about being ignored for large, stupid, slobbery things. Karolina and Nico keep sneaking these glances at each other, like they are in on some secret. It looks like, well, it looks like a family. Chase snaps a picture on his phone ‘for the Christmas card’. Chase glances at Gert, and catches her looking up at him, smiling a little strange smile. They are thinking the same thing- that this feels like fate.

 

And years later, after the third dog, the first joint dog (they named him Ronald for no reason and thought it was the world’s best joke). After the promotion to assistant principal, after the professorship teaching Women’s Studies and Jewish American Literature, after Alex started that company that made him a millionaire and that charity that made him not a millionaire anymore. After Molly and Karo starting their own practices. After Nico started combining tech and rituals with Alex’s help and selling her decks of virtual tarot cards. After the old house and the new house and Nico and Karolina getting married and Molly’s first ‘real girlfriend’ and their first pride as a group. After life has happened around them. Gert looks at Chase, and she is in a dress. At an altar. 4 months pregnant. With 4 animals in the venue. And she gives him the same look as she starts her vows. “I’d like to begin by thanking Ada, and a wise man who once told me that we all get a fated moment.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is based entirely on a cute tumblr post I saw and thought 'huh. that's such a cute fic concept'. and you know what? it was.  
> https://twitterlols.tumblr.com/post/151360327537/this-is-the-only-love-story-i-care-about


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